LAST DAY OF 2012!!!!

Run and tell that.

Hello Everyone! And Welcome to the last day of the year!  This is the last day of the year I was a missionary!  AHH! How did it come to this??!?!

Okay, I'm alright. I still have time to enjoy this great work before I am tragically ripped away from it.

For example: 

Yesterday we had

2 BAPTISMS!!!!!

Yes that's right! Thanks to our wonderful District Leader, Elder Toeava, we were able to have 2 souls enter the waters of baptism and open the doors to their salvation. 

Roger Allen Antwon Caleb Battie and Brandon Miller.

Both are super happy and doing quite well.  

Roger met the missionaries on his birthday when they knocked on his door. He's come to church a few times since that day in November and set his own date a few weeks ago and followed through on it! His son was even there (but slept through the actually baptism!)

Brandon's story is a little more complicated. His dad was a member referral from a semi-recent convert and they were both taught back in October. Brian (the dad) got baptized then, but Brandon didn't. He had some issues with smoking and crappy friends, but came to the Christmas eve party and quit his job.  We saw him on Thursday (my first time) and talked to him about what he wants in his life. He basically told us that he has no reason not to be baptized but didn't want to do it. We told him to pray about it. Then on Saturday, we had Elder Toeava come and interview him unexpectedly. When Brandon came out of that interview, he was a different person! He was so happy and excited to get baptized the next day! It was incredible! (apparently, 20 year old boys can relate to 18 year old boys better than 23 year old girls can!)  Anyway, Brandon was so happy yesterday! and so was his whole family! It was such a wonderful experience!

The rest of the week was interesting. It was filled with a lot of broken dreams, but we won't talk about those. There were also some really great moments, including the support of members! On Christmas day, we went to the Herzig home and spent a wonderful day there eating, talking, and playing music! (Bro. Herzig found a ton of old music and let us look through it! We didn't know most of them but I'm sure dad would have loved them!)

We also had a great moment harvesting this week. Here's what I told President:

"We biked to an area that was a little farther than we usually go to and found a street. As we knocked, we found a few people that let us pray for them but weren't interested in listening to us. Then we met Pierre. He immediately let us inside and we gathered his whole family together and prayed for them individually.  They loved the blessing! When we asked Pierre to be baptized, he said he doesn't like church because the always ask for money. As we kept talking, we could see the change come over him and by the time we left, he and his wife were asking for us to come back and were excited to be a part of our church! It was awesome, especially because we didn't really say anything, it was just the Spirit working through him!"

Well, I have people to go find and a testimony to go share.  I hope you all do the same!

Have a wonderful New Year! Don't forget to include missionary work in your New Year's resolutions!

Love,

Hermana Sheffield

Look At Your Life Through Heaven's Eyes

December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas EVE!!!!

Hope you are all warm and cozy and ready for Santa to come!  Have you been good this year?

It is, of course, not cold here. Nor will Santa be coming (we already got our presents!). Nor will we be cozy in our beds with dreams of sugerplum fairies. Instead, us missionaries will be driving around with the air conditioning on visiting wayward members and giving them presents. And our dreams are always of people dressed in white and entering into the waters of baptism. No fairies for us.

We had some pretty great moments this week. Some spiritually powerful, some hilarious, some creepy, some exhausting. Here's a few to be noted:

One great moment from this week was with Roger (our super tall, skinny black investigator). We had a lesson with him this past week with a member (who brought him a Christmas Present!) and during the lesson we brought up baptism again and he said he wasn't ready until February. Even the member said that was too far away. So Roger looked at his calendar and said, "I should do it before the New Year. I'll do it on the 30th" ! We were so excited! He set his own date and came to church again and is still preparing to be baptized next week!

Another great lesson happened on Wednesday. We had a member couple, the Riveros, come and visit Nadia with us. They are both returned missionaries and know how helping the missionaries is part of their temple covenants. They have such great testimonies and almost taught the entire Restoration for us! It was really helpful because it was all in Spanish and our investigator talks really fast and Sister Dougal is still pretty limited in her Spanish (although, for not being called Spanish-speaking, she is doing incredibly well!). Anyway, during the lesson, they committed her to come to church and offered her a ride, even though the Dad is the only one that can drive and would have to make two trips to get his family and the other family to church. He is so awesome! Nadia couldn't say no. They also committed her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We stopped by later in the week and were able to talk with Nadia and her aunt for a while. Before we left, the aunt asked for a Book of Mormon as well! Then on Sunday, Nadia and her 3 children came to church! They enjoyed the music during the Christmas program and really liked the classes. Nadia and her family sat by another Latin family during Sacrament (since the Riveros were in the Choir) and then met a woman from Colombia that got her phone number and is living in a similar situation. It was amazing to see the ward members do so much for her! I am excited to see her progress with all the fellowship she already has!  Hopefully, she will be able to recognize her answer soon and we can set her with a date for baptism!

Yesterday we went to visit a former investigator. Her husband said she wasn't home so we knock on their neighbors' doors. No one wanted blessings from Christ. One man was a Jehovah's Witness and was shocked to see girl missionaries. One guy came up really close to the frosted glass next to his door and stood there super-creepylike and then sort of disappeared into the darkness. Super creepy.

On Saturday, the Elders texted us around 3 and said they were having a baptism that night. Then then said we needed to be there so Sister Dougal could play the piano and I could say a prayer. Then they asked us to pick up milk for them. Then they told us it was Elder Edwards' birthday. We changed all our plans for the rest of the day to accommodate their late-notice baptism, but it went well and there is a new 10 year old member of the church!

This week, it actually got kind of cold. At one point the car said it was only 50 degrees! We were FREEZING! I could see my breath yesterday. That means it is cold, right?

Don't worry, today it is back up in the mid-70s.

On Thursday, We went to the ward Relief Society Christmas party and sang for everyone. We had it outside, but it was luckily the day before the cold front hit. We had it outside where you can look at the pool, or the ocean, because they are just as close! I can't even describe the awesomeness that was that house. It was kind of dark, but I tried to take some pictures for you. It is actually two houses. So I guess if she gets mad at her husband she can just go to the other house and be alone for a while. Florida is crazy.

That was a few moments from my past week. How was yours?

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and are able to remember Christ in all that is going on.

Love, Hermana Sheffield

P.S. What did you get/do for Christmas? I want to see/hear about it!

Is it really December?

Hello all from the hot and humid land of Port St. Lucie, Florida. I am still confused about what month of the year it is. why would people put up a Christmas tree in september? 

This week was actually a ton of fun. And trial-full, but that's what makes life exciting.

Tuesday we had Zone Council. We are in a zone with 20 elders. Just the 2 sisters and 20 elders. Kind of crazy. we are kind of the "mom" of the zone and made sure lunch was taken care of and everyone was happy. We also practiced our song for Mission Conference: O Holy Night in french! With Sister Dougal on Piano and me on violin! It took quite a bit of practice to get them to pronounce French words and such, but it was good.  We also ate dinner with a member family who is half-peruvian (as in she is Peruvian and he is whitewhitewhite). They liked that I spoke to them in Spanish. The only other lesson we ended up teaching was to a woman from Columbia who didn't stop talking! But she is awesome. More on her later.

Wednesday, We realized that we don't have enough miles to go to all our meetings this month, so we will need to bike everyday. We biked and found 3 people that are awesome and want to be baptized! We also found Pat Baddish, who was baptized 30 years ago and didn't really remember much other than that. She was looking for the church here in Port St. Lucie but ended up going to a different church. It was a really long day, hot and humid, on bikes. However, we were happy because President gave us permission to ride down with the zone leaders to the mission conference!   BUT when we got to correlation, the Elders said they were taking Okeechobee Elders! We were crushed, and distraught. AND no one in Correlation wanted to help us! Lame.

Thursday, We woke up and the Elders said they changed it up and they could take us. Rejoice! We left at 7:30 and got to Ft. Lauderdale at 10:00am. Good long drive. then We practiced our song, reunited with old companions and friends, ate a delicious lunch, had a white Elephant exchange, then we had our musical talents.  All the zones did a musical number. We went last. And, if you ask me, ours was the best. Although, some were pretty entertaining. We also had an awesome devotional and took a lot of pictures. Then we drove home. we finally got back to our area around 6:30. 

And, as I told President: "We also were able to have a lesson with a man named Jesus as soon as we got back from Mission Conference. He is so awesome! He said he loves when we come over and it makes him feel good. He mentioned that he sometimes feels the adversary working really hard to get him to not meet with us or read the scriptures. We told him it wasn't uncommon for that to happen when he was doing something so great, such as changing his life for the better.  He also asked if we could have more people with us so that he could learn from them and feel of their spirit as well! He asked us for member present lessons! We were so excited to tell this to our ward council, but it was cancelled because the bishop is still out of town. Anyway, Jesus is awesome and I can't wait for him to come to church (when he isn't in Orlando for the weekend) and then to get baptized!  It is definitely going to happen soon."

Friday, We drove 30 miles to District training in Jupiter. yay. We tried to see our awesome people from Wednesday, but only one was home. We also spent about an hour listening to Pat and Randy Baddish talk about how they are going to live in their camper and then build a house out of sandbags. They also told us how none of their family members like them anymore. It was kind of sad, but I understand a little because they are kind of crazy. Got to love Floridians!  we also had our only member present lesson with Bro. Rivero who really helped us out teaching Nadia. Her aunt came over and had a ton of hostile questions about coffee and the Book of Mormon. He softened her heart and she wants to come back and learn with us again!  THEN, we went back to our car and had a flat tire! It being 8 at night and being pretty far away from anyone we knew, we were pretty determined to change that tire ourselves. We were going pretty well and had the car up on the jack, but we couldn't loosen the lug nuts! Luckily this woman had pulled up and left her headlights on and then went and got her husband who could loosen them for us! Good times.

Saturday we spent 2 hours at Tire Kingdom getting a new tire and watching the CNN report on the shooting in Connecticut. sad. The Ward Party was Saturday night and none of our investigators came and not many members came. It was pretty lame actually. Oh well. 

Sunday, wasn't the best either. Except the Elders had a baptism before church (which I played violin at)! Yay for baptisms!  The Grants (a young couple in the ward) invited us over for dinner. The Garrets were there too and they all told some very funny and entertaining (and scandalous) stories. I think Alan and Kristin would fit right in with them! I miss you guys!  we blessed 9 people yesterday, none of which accepted baptism. And we saw Lea who did not get baptized as she was supposed to, but instead told us she didn't want to quit smoking. We have to drop her. sad day.

Well, Today is a new week! And it is going to be awesome! right? Christmas is coming and even though it doesn't feel like it, the Christmas season is upon us!  Hope you all are enjoying the wonderful blessing that come from our Savior Jesus Christ.

I love you all!

Merry Christmas!

Love, Hermana Sheffield

Port St. Lucie, Florida

Stuart is not only the name of a talking mouse, it is an Area!

Hello and Happy Holidays from the city of Port St. Lucie, Florida!

That's right, I've moved from the southern-most (sisters) area in the mission to the Northernmost! And let me tell you, It couldn't be more different! But still good. Always good.

The area is very chill compared to Miami and the ward reminds me a lot of home (both Utah and Boynton Beach). Except there are a few more Spanish speakers. Officially, we are Stuart North, but we live and proselyte in Port St. Lucie. Just in case you are wondering, I am once again driving a Chevy Malibu (silver this time) and our apartment is probably the nicest in the entire mission! Actually, we're guessing there will be 4 sisters living here soon because it is big enough and there are a lot more sisters coming in. (most after I leave).

My companion is Sister Dougal. She just finished her training. She is incredible! She is from Washington State but she graduated from BYU, so she knows Utah. She plays the piano better than anyone and sings very well. She also is a pro at teaching and harvesting and missionary work in general. She took over the area like a champ! I am going to learn a lot from her! She was called English speaking, but has already learned how to pray and testify simply in Spanish!

This week we had some great miracles. We work together really well and it showed! We got 6 new investigators and set 5 dates! Only 3 of them are still set now, but still, it was awesome! Two are investigators that have been around for a while and the other is a 10 yr-old girl whose sister was baptized last week. She can't read, but she really wants to be baptized! Random cool miracles.

There are a lot of new people I met that I could tell you about, but I don't know where to start and no one really cares anyway.

I will, however, share some tidbits for those of you who are still reading this after so many months.

My favorite harvesting experience this week was our first night here in Port St. Lucie. We went harvesting and we didn't have a lot of time (after the long drive up here and me being sick) but we went out and knocked on several doors. We met a woman who was nice but not interested in baptism. Then we went upstairs. We knocked on the door and Jesus answered. He let us pray with him and when we invited him to be baptized he said Yes, I need to do that. He had gone to church growing up but hadn't been for a while and knew he needed to be baptized. We came back later in the week and had a member present lesson with him. He told us all about his life and the job he has now, which brought him to this part of Florida. He also told us that his mother had been talking to him the day we came by and told him that he needed to go back to church, and then we showed up! He knew we were sent by God. When we asked him what blessings he wanted from Christ, he said he wanted more faith and strength to go to church and change his ways! He is incredible! Unfortunately, he is going to be out of town the next couple of weeks, but I know we were all there together at that moment so he can get baptized. Soon, very soon.

My favorite experience this week was eating at the Rivero family's home. They are from Mexico and the Mom and kids don't speak English. Lucky for me, I understand Spanish! Hna. Rivero basically took that opportunity to explain everything I should know for the rest of my life (mission). I learned so many incredible that day; my life was changed. She has such an incredible testimony of missionaries! I felt honored to be called a representative of Jesus Christ. She also told me to not tell people how long I have left in my mission because then they can't wrongly judge me!

So with that in mind, I will now go out and work because I have been out long enough to know how to work and I have plenty of time left to be successful and work hard.

I love you all! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas Season and that you share something about Christ with someone who needs it.


Love, Hermana Sheffield

Diciembre

Hello Everyone! Hope you are having a wonderful December thus far! All 4 days of it!

So, Yesterday we had transfer calls. Sister Syme is staying and I am TRANSFERRING!!! That's right, even though I've only been in Killian West for 1 transfer, I am headed out. Plus, That means I leave the apartment and zone that I have been in since May. I really thought I was staying so I have no idea where I'm going now. But it will be awesome!! and Sister Syme is going to bounce back and LOVE this area once again! ;)

I guess the second biggest news now is that I am sick. Yup. Full on sick. As in I have strep throat!! It's really not a shock for anyone that knows me. Actually, the shock is that I didn't get it until December this year!

Here is a run down of my week because I can't remember specific stories right now. Too much medicine.
Monday: We saw Rachel and it slipped her mind that she had agreed to come to church. She hasn't called or been home since then. Lame. We also harvested this lady named Radia who accepted baptism after we prayed for her unborn child and set up an appointment to see her Tuesday.

Tuesday: We had a great district training and comp study with our District Leader, Elder Kata. Then we went to lunch with our whole district. Pollo Tropical is delicious! We also went harvesting and blessed a ysa, a Muslim, a guy recently moved in from Ohio, a guy living with his girlfriend, and a dad and his little girl who tried to swiffer Sister Syme's feet. "Damelo, papi! Damelo!" So cute. Then we were running late to Radia's so I called her and she said "we're not religious in this house. It would be better if you don't come. Don't come. Don't come. Don't come." (In her eastern European accent). So sad it was funny.

Wednesday: We drove out to Costco to get Flu Shots! Yay! It was a fantastic adventure. The doctor said he'd seen a lot of missionaries (but he goes to Rey Jesus, so preaching wasn't much use). Then, to reward ourselves, we got chicken bakes, churros, and smoothies at the Costco cafe. Such a good idea! We also got a call from a very distraught Karen, who has to be out of her house by Monday and has no where to go and still has to pack. We went over and helped her move some things for a garage sale and packed up several boxes of books. We also shared a message with her and she fed us hamburgers! (And her daughters we just sitting around watching Glee . . .). We found this sweet apartment complex at the top of our area and found a ton of great people including Yenelis who accepted baptismal dates! We stopped by Joe and he said he was busy, but we talked for about 20 minutes. Topics included his high school crush who was "hot wholesome", him being a medical miracle in 1950, a woman's face that could be made into a saddle it was so leathery, and the definition of 'P.S'. Thanks Joe.

Thursday: We ate with a member named Hna. Castro. I wasn't feeling too well and she talked forever and then took us upstairs and left us with her neighbor, a old Cuban women that (surprise surprise) likes to talk. We had lesson in there somewhere and left before Sister syme had to drag me out. Somehow we kept going and managed to reach our goal for harvest blessings!

Friday: This was the day my throat started hurting. We went to see Marscene, a recent convert, and taught her the plan of Salvation. She's hilarious and great. She is a black lady that lives in an ALF run by Spanish speakers. Classic Miami. We ate tacos with Sister Stand and got to talk to her daughter Olga. Which is hard to do. All ourother appointments fell through, as usual.

Saturday: My throat really hurt, but we went harvesting and found 6 people! By mid-day I had to give in and go take a nap. (And just so you know, mom, I called the mission nurse and she told me to gargle with salt water) We also saw a less-Active and found out her son isn't baptized!

Sunday: The aforementioned unbaptized son was our only investigator at church because everyone else ditched us. BUT Michelle Stewart, a really less active, came to church for the first time in 10 years! Yay! We went to eat at the Snyder's after church and who should show up, but Santa!! (Bro. Snyder is a professional Santa!) We didn't do much else because I was feeling so crappy. Oh, but also, we watched a video in Sunday School that was like a movie trailer for the book of Mormon. It was hilarious because all the Latin people loved it and I was just telling Sister Syme all the movies they were using clips from! (300, troy, gladiator, Braveheart, etc.) (We didn't make it to the devotional.)

Monday: I finally got some penicillin in the evening, but the strep had already progressed to sort of a head cold. Awesome. Oh, well, now it will get better just in time for me to go to a new area! Where will I go? Who will be my companion? Find out! Next time on, Sister Sheffield and the mission in Florida. Until then, Farewell. Go do something you've never done before!

Love, Hermana Sheffield
p.s. pictures to come